“Cheap hosting” usually means one of two jobs: a shared WordPress box you can open in a browser, or a static site on a CDN that builds from git. Both can run a niche blog that earns from affiliates and email. Mixing them up is how beginners burn a weekend on the wrong control panel.

This guide is a buy-decision frame, not a coupon roundup. For CMS choice, see Astro vs WordPress for a niche blog. For the Astro deploy path, use Astro + Vercel hosting basics. For what to publish once the site is up, follow the 90-day niche blog plan.

What “cheap” should mean

Cheap is not the lowest sticker price on a three-year prepaid plan. For an income-minded content site, cheap means:

• A bill you will still pay when traffic is quiet
• Hours you do not spend on outages, malware cleanups, or “why is FTP broken”
• Pages fast enough that search and ads do not punish you

A $3/month host that needs weekly babysitting is expensive. A free static tier that stays boring is often cheaper in real money.

Two honest stacks

Job	Typical stack	You pay for
Browser editing, themes, plugins	WordPress on shared hosting	Disk, PHP, email, backups, support
Markdown/MDX guides, git deploys	Static site on a CDN host	Build minutes + bandwidth (often free early)

If your product is articles and you are fine writing in files, static usually wins on speed and ops. If a co-author needs wp-admin, or you want one-click themes and form plugins, shared hosting is the honest fit.

Do not put a static Astro project on shared hosting “because it was on sale.” You will fight PHP defaults and file managers instead of publishing. Do not force WordPress onto a static-only host and expect plugins to behave.

When shared hosting is enough

Shared hosting is a good buy when most of these are true:

• You are running WordPress (or another PHP app), not a static build
• You want domain + site + mailbox in one vendor for the first year
• You prefer a setup wizard over wiring git and environment variables
• Your traffic will stay modest for a while (a niche blog usually does)
• You will keep a lean theme and a short plugin list

Beginner “start a blog” searches still land on shared hosts for that reason. Hostinger is a common pick in that lane: WordPress install, SSL, and a price that does not scare a first niche site. Treat it as WordPress infrastructure, not as a general-purpose home for every framework you read about on Twitter.

Shared hosting is a weak fit when:

• You already decided on Astro (or another static generator) and a git deploy
• You need custom Node servers, Docker, or heavy background jobs
• You refuse to do core/theme/plugin updates — shared WordPress without updates is a liability

When a static CDN host is the cheaper path

A static content site on something like Vercel (or similar git-connected hosts) is usually cheaper in time once the first deploy works:

• No PHP, no plugin update treadmill
• HTML that is easy to keep fast without a caching-plugin project
• Free tiers that cover early affiliate and email traffic

You trade visual on-site editing for a folder of Markdown and a build log. That trade is fine for solo creators who publish guides weekly. Details live in the Astro hosting walkthrough.

Buy shared hosting later if you add a PHP app, a staging WordPress, or a client site that is not static. You can run both: static for the money blog, shared for the odd PHP need.

A simple decision checklist

Answer once, then stop shopping:

1. Who edits the site? Only you with a text editor → static is fine. Someone who needs a browser CMS → WordPress on shared.
2. What runs on the server? Mostly HTML from a build → CDN/static. PHP and plugins → shared.
3. Where does email live? Prefer a real email product (Kit vs Beehiiv) over “hosting includes webmail” as your growth stack. Hosting mail is fine for hello@; it is not your list.
4. What is your ops budget? Under an hour a month → prefer static. Comfortable with updates and backups → shared WordPress is workable.
5. Are you shopping because you are stuck publishing? Fix the publishing plan first. A new host does not write the next guide.

Domain and DNS (same for both)

Buy the domain wherever the price and renewal are clear. Point DNS through Cloudflare so you can change hosts without another registrar fight: short TTL during cutover, apex and www exactly as your host documents.

HTTPS should be automatic on any modern host. If it is not, that is a red flag — switch before you write twenty posts on HTTP.

Money-site habits that beat “the cheapest plan”

• One clear job per URL; title and description match the query
• Disclose affiliates on commercial pages (disclosure)
• Tracked partner links only when you are actually in a program
• Analytics you will open weekly (pageviews and outbound clicks)
• A privacy page before you chase ads (privacy)

Ten useful URLs in one niche beat a prepaid hosting deal with three thin posts. Hosting is plumbing. Publishing is the product.

Bottom line

Choose shared hosting (Hostinger-class) when WordPress, browser editing, and a single-vendor beginner setup matter more than git deploys. Choose a static CDN host when the product is Markdown guides and you want speed plus a quiet maintenance bill.

Either way: pick once, attach the domain, submit the sitemap, and ship the cluster. The host that stays boring while you publish weekly is the cheap one.